My PC is crumbling down in a cascade of problems. Will reinstalling windows fix my issue?

arenae

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My PC is about 5 years old. The only upgrade I've done is changing the GPU and the PSU after it failed last year. But these past months, specially the past 2 weeks my PC have been having so many issues it reached a point I'm so frustrated I'm considering switching to linux or using my mac mini just so I don't have to deal with my problems. Maybe it's windows, or maybe all my hardware is failing? And if I'm considering linux which I used and loved in the past, maybe I should consider reinstalling windows if that will fix my issues, the main problem will be downloading almost 1 TB of software again.

My specs fisrt. I use the most recent update of Windows 10 Fall Creators Update x64, have 8GB of ram, an i5-3570 a GTX 980 graphics card and a 600W power supply.

My problems are as follow:

2 to 3 months ago My CPU started giving me crashes in everything and freezes, sometimes BSODs saying how my processor is failing. I realized my temperatures were way too high and bought a new cooler, and it appeared to have fixed my problems.

Then, starting a month ago or so, I've been having an "insufficient memory" error and programs closing on their own or crashing. (after I updated to the fall creators update I stopped getting this error, but some programs still close on their own in the background).

And now, everything crashed and I recieved a message that said "unknown software exception (0x8007000e) ocurred in the application in the local 0x00007FFED2573FB8 (my display resolution changed to a super low one) then soon after I took pictures of this code I received a BSOD saying dxgmms2.sys failed. So my CPU, memory, and GPU are all failing now?

I tried to clean install GPU drivers with DDU but even that was a problem, as I am unable to reboot into safe mode, since when I restart, my PC shows a black screen up to the point the login screen appears, so I cant select safe mode or do anything in the bios. I'm desperate and willing to clean install windows, but will this fix my problems or it's a hardware issue? I scanned my PC for malware and It's fine. I've always treated my software and hardware well, my PC hardware is clean and all... What can I do?
 
Solution

The BIOS reset of restore could initially have made the difference.

It should be a simple repair. The worst part of the problem seems to be the HDD... if you clean installed Windows, you had to have formatted the HDD.. and if that didn't solve the problem, it may be in bad shape. The shop may test it or not so after you get the computer back install Hard Disk Sentinel to know the HDD's actual condition.

samucaninja

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hi arenae, thanks for taking note of the error code 0x8007000e. please read this:
http://wikifixes.com/en/errors/0x/0x8007000e/?gclid=CjwKCAjw7MDPBRAFEiwAppdF9JfnSty0Y3ODi4Oj2gsECnhHToAEHiORFA5wbGKO12j-e1ZkKoviDBoCbtkQAvD_BwE

The "0x8007000e" error is commonly caused by incorrectly configured system settings or irregular entries in the Windows registry. This error can be fixed with special software that repairs the registry and tunes up system settings to restore stability

Causes of "0x8007000e"

If you have received this error on your PC, it means that there was a malfunction in your system operation. Common reasons include incorrect or failed installation or uninstallation of software that may have left invalid entries in your Windows registry, consequences of a virus or malware attack, improper system shutdown due to a power failure or another factor, someone with little technical knowledge accidentally deleting a necessary system file or registry entry, as well as a number of other causes. The immediate cause of the "0x8007000e" error is a failure to correctly run one of its normal operations by a system or application component.
Ways to repair "0x8007000e"

With this error, like with most system or application errors, the user is usually given the option to send an error report to the software publisher, which is a good way to help the publisher eliminate such errors in future software versions. For a more immediate fix, advanced PC users may be able to repair the error by manually editing the registry, and others may want to hire a technician to do it for them. However, since any manipulations with the Windows registry always carry a risk of rendering the operating system unbootable, whenever a user is in any doubt of their technical skills or knowledge, they should only use special software that is meant to repair the Windows registry without requiring any special skills from the user.

as it seems you cant log in to try manual operations, yes you will need to install the windows again, in a new fresh partition/drive (1) or just under the one you have, just to try to rescue what you have installed (2).

if your choice is 2, after the reinstallation I would suggest you to install cccleaner to fix your registry: https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner
if you get luck, after running ccleaner you may be able to rescue your previous state of your windows without having to download 1TB of SW again.

good luck.
 

arenae

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Yeah, maybe it's more than one thing in the software side that is affecting the stability of my system. 3 years ago or so I used to reinstall windows for every major version, and I don't do that for quite a while. Hopefully it will make things better! I didn't even know you could kind of restore your system with CCleaner even after a clean install... That's good to know!
 

samucaninja

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I would reinstall windows just to make it accessible again. During the installation of windows, if you choose the partition you have, the installation menu will show "repair this partition/installation" . Then the installation will copy some files trying to fix the access to your desktop (the after log in stage). If you can reach this stage, install ccleaner and let it run in. Backup your registry if you feel you may need that information if something fails.

As you described (black screen) usually happens when lots of inconsistent information is registered in windows registry. This is normally caused by lots of installations and uninstallations of several softwares, sometimes poor ones with bad uninstall routines, resulting in garbage in windows registry. At this point ccleaner comes in, reading every single entry in the windows registry to verify its consistency among the softwares and drivers installed. In other words, ccleaner has its value for current windows installations with issues, like yours. Fresh new windows installation means a fresh new windows registry, without issues. ;-)
 

arenae

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I have access to my windows right now, I can log in, just can't see the booting process. If I install ccleaner right now and do the registry cleaning will it be the same thing? I had uninstalled ccleaner because it was compromised a while back.
 
The i5-3570 is no wimp and if it's getting adequate cooling there's no reason it should be failing along with memory and graphics card. It sounds to me like a possible virus infection. The stop error code may be due to infection, outdated drivers, hardware issues, or even a powe issue. If your PSU is new, check all it's connections to the motherboard, next update your drivers, drivers included in the Windows installer are not always the best available so try downloading the updates from the motherboard product page > Support > Downloads.
Also do a disk defragg, a checkdisk, remove junk files (from temp folders) with CCleaner, run several virus and malware scanns with an updated antivirus, Malwarebytes,.. check the MY PC is slow! post and apply as many of the suggestions as you can.

To login in Safe Mode, go to the search bar and type msconfig, and from the Boot tab mark Safe Mode apply and restart the computer... it should load Windows in safe mode.

Causes of Dxgmms2.sys Errors
http://www.solvusoft.com/en/files/bsod-blue-screen-error/sys/windows/microsoft-corporation/windows-10-operating-system/dxgmms2-sys/

Apply these slow PC fixes.
MY PC is slow!
http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1863469/slow.html
 

arenae

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I did most of these and now I’m on the check disk. It’s been almost an hour and it’s still on 10%. The screen was black but I discovered that if I unplug my hdmi cable and plug it again the image shows. I don’t know if I should force a restart, the check disk is taking too long. I also don’t know if it’s just better to reinstall Windows or try to fix things the way they are!
 

arenae

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Oh wow check disk has been 2 hours on 10% and I now read that since my disk is 3 TB it can take days and I can’t cancel or my drive will be damaged and that a “bad drive is a bad drive” that should be replaced when I bought it this year? I can’t afford to spend days waiting on check disk when it wasn’t even the origin of my problem! Why do people even advise you to run this? Will my drive corrupt if I force a reboot?
 

arenae

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Please, someone help me! It’s absolutely insane! I clean installed windows, everything was updated and fresh, and when I restarted the pc the screen is black and nothing I can do helps it! I can plug the monitor to hdmi or DisplayPort, nothing happens and the monitor turns off on its own! It’s unthinkable to me that my pc could do this to me, even after a clean install! I don’t know if the other problems are fixed, but the screen won’t show anything!
 

arenae

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For a bit more detail, the activity indicator is turned off, but the power indicator is on, and none of my peripherals have lights on. My GPU has lights on but my wifi adapter is off. Sometimes it turns off and on by itself but I have no idea what's going on.
 

Sorry... I wasn't online after the first answer... Well, the long time for the Chkdsk indicates a problem with the HDD.. the possible issues you can expect from a forced cancelling of chkdsk, is a few sectors may be damaged but if the scan was stalled on a bad sector more likely a cluster of bad sectors, they were probably to damaged to recover.. though the information on them may be lost, it may not be of personal data, and if you make backups, that wouldn't be a problem. So, after chkdsk taking so long, force cancelling it would be my advice.

The peripheral lights etc. may be due to sleep mode because if the chkdsk is paused the system may read it as inactive. I'd go ahead and force shutdown the PC (press and hold the power button) and start it up.. the chkdsk scan may prompt to continue.. just cancell it pressing any key and proceed to logon... see what you get after that.

You probably don't have the HDD partitioned right?.. that may be why the chkdsk scan would take so long.. that's something I try to avoid by partitioning all my HDDs so I can perform chkdsk on partition by partition and not all the HDD at once.

 

arenae

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It's not partitioned. I canceled check disk and did a clean install of windows and as soon as I restarted the screen is black and I can't do anything, with the activity indicator being off and the power indicator on. I don't know if some of the hardware is really damaged... I'll try to bring my PC to my local repair shop because I can't do anything inside of it and it's dead weight at this point... I just bought a new game I was looking forwards to yesterday and today my pc is dead. If it's broken I don't know what I would do... I have a mac mini that works well for anything that is not intensive but I would be unable to play games nor can I afford a new pc right now. I hope it comes back alive! :/
 
Is there no bios post or anything?... that can be caused by bad PSU, RAM issues, BIOS corruption, even GPU issues. At this point it can't be Windows related... that would go blank after Window starts loading.. HDD issues may bring a message saying undectected OS, no bootable device found, but in Windows or HDD issues, you'd see the BIOS post. So it's most likely hardware related. Do these repairs before taking it to the shop.
1. try a different PSU
2. Do a BIOS reset
3. Do a BIOS recovery
 

arenae

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I couldn't access the bios reset, there were stuff blocking it. It's already on the repair shop. Thanks so much for the help! I hope it comes back working properly!
 

The BIOS reset of restore could initially have made the difference.

It should be a simple repair. The worst part of the problem seems to be the HDD... if you clean installed Windows, you had to have formatted the HDD.. and if that didn't solve the problem, it may be in bad shape. The shop may test it or not so after you get the computer back install Hard Disk Sentinel to know the HDD's actual condition.
 
Solution